MOTORSPORT: Racing all over the world

Townsville pointer to Courtney-Whincup tussle
It is year two for the V8 Supercars at Townsville's 2.86km Reid Park track. They were well received last year and there is great excitement in the city, and throughout North Queensland, about them being back there.

That's a good start, although there is little evidence so far of this round having much national impact. The V8 Supercar Championship has suffered from its calendar this year, especially the dropping of the Perth round, and perhaps is overshadowed in the public spotlight by Mark Webber having become a Formula One world title contender and regularly at the centre of attention-grabbing incidents.

Of great interest to us out of Townsville's two 200km races though will be the Holden-Ford scoreline as the championship takes a two-month break. It's nine-five in Holden's favour so, but Fords have won five of the past six races.

Jim Beam/Dick Johnson Racing/Ford's James Courtney, in a Triple Eight Race Engineering-built Falcon, takes a 57-point lead into the Townsville meeting over dual champion Team Vodafone/Triple Eight/Holden's Jamie Whincup.

While the Holden v Ford battle still counts for a lot, there is little difference between a V8 Supercar Commodore and Falcon now and indeed many -- and indeed the most successful -- have been built by the one operation -- Triple Eight.

Apart from the tussle between Courtney and Whincup -- as the winners of last year's Townsville races as well as the top two drivers in this year's championship -- there's plenty more to watch for this weekend. Like whether Ford Performance Racing and Mark Winterbottom can sustain its form after Darwin, where they were first and second in the two races there; whether Stone Brothers' Shane van Gisbergen can break through for another Ford win after consistent podiums this year; whether the Holden Racing Team can get Garth Tander and Will Davison back in the hunt; and whether the likes of Lee Holdsworth and Alex Davison can add themselves to the mix of winners.

Cameron McConville returns to the championship this round, installed in Lucas Dumbrell's young team which will add a bit of personality to the series and give McConnville some handy practice for his endurance co-driving role with HRT.

Silverstone decisive in F1 fight
The British Grand Prix at Silverstone is one of Formula One's iconic rounds -- and this weekend's could be crucial to the world title fight.

It has been close to the best, if not indeed the best, world championship in history but from perhaps nine contenders early in the season the contest has contracted to, at most, five. These are the two McLaren drivers, Lewis Hamilton (127 points) and Jenson Button (121), the two Red Bull drivers, Sebastian Vettel (115) and Mark Webber (103), and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso (98).

It could easily contract further to just three in a hurry, although Webber or Alonso could shake things up by winning at Silverstone.

The McLaren and Red Bull cars are in another league to the rest, although Alonso and Ferrari felt they didn't get the opportunity to show their best at the previous race in Valencia, Spain. They need to produce it now before the battle narrows further.

Webber appears to have no ill-effects from his spectacular Valencia crash, will have a new car this weekend and has been applying pressure to McLaren by suggesting that the harmony between Hamilton and Button can't last. But once the cars hit the track Webber will need to have his focus fully on his own performance as he too needs to maximize his results over the second half of the season.

Bruno Senna has been dropped from the Hispania team -- for this weekend at least. His place will be taken by the team's Japanese test driver Sakon Yamamoto. It appears the switch may be because of sponsorship difficulties for Senna.

Senna, nephew of the late and incomparable Ayrton Senna, has been classified in just three of the GPs in his debut season, with his best results being 16th in Malaysia and China.

Yamamoto started 14 GPs in 2006 and 2007 for the now-defunct Super Aguri and Spyker -- then run by Kolles -- without scoring a point.

Bulgaria welcomes WRC as Ford woos Ogier
Bulgaria has hosted a round of the European rally championship for more than 40 years and finally it makes its debut in the World Rally Championship this weekend.

"We've been preparing for it for more than 15 years," Bulgarian Automobile Federation president Georgi Yanakiev said ahead of the 354km, all-asphalt rally around Borovets, the country's oldest winter resort.

Citroen's six-time world champion Sebastien Loeb has said the predicted rain could make it one of the toughest asphalt events in WRC history.

"The roads are not very abrasive, so if the rain does come then there's not going to be so much grip," Loeb said.

"But it's good we don't have to think about the running order at all. We can go fast from the first stage to the last. This is good."

Meanwhile, Ford has approached Citroen's young French star Sebastien Ogier about joining its factory team next year -- although Citroen is confident he will stay with in its camp.

Ford of Europe motorsport manager Gerard Quinn said Ogier would not be brought into the Blue Oval fold to replace either Mikko Hirvonen or Jari-Matti Latvala but would drive a Fiesta RS alongside the Finns.

"We have two very good drivers in Mikko and Jari-Matti and having somebody like Ogier would be good," Quinn said.

Ogier, who scored his first WRC victory in Portugal two months ago with Citroen's junior team, said he would make his decision before the end of the month.

"I think it's fair for everybody if I decide before Rally Finland. At the moment, my focus is on this rally in Bulgaria but after that I have to decide -- it's a straight choice between Citroen and Ford," he said.

Citroen Racing director Olivier Quesnel said he was not concerned by Ford's overtures to Ogier. The youngster will make his debut as Loeb's teammate on Rally Finland when he and Spaniard Dani Sordo switch places.

"I think Sebastien Ogier likes the colour red, he prefers red to blue -- I'm not so anxious," Quesnel said.

"If Ford wants to speak to Ogier they can. I can't do anything. I don't mind. It means Ogier is good. We will see what he decides. This is the game, but Citroen is used to preparing the young driver and I think Ford should do the same. They have the young driver called Matthew Wilson -- it would be better for rallying if they do the same."

Montoya and Ambrose NASCAR season's biggest losers
Marcos Ambrose is hoping yet again that his fortunes turn for the better in NASCAR's Sprint Cup at Chicagoland.

Dustin Long, writing for The Virginian-Pilot this week, had an interesting perspective on the NASCAR season, including Ambrose.

"Points leader Kevin Harvick has made the largest jump in the points since this time last year," Long wrote.

"A year ago, after the 18th of 36 Cup races, Harvick was 26th in the points. The driver who has made the second-largest gain in the points is Scott Speed. He has climbed 11 spots, from 35th to 24th. Next is Dale Earnhardt Junior, who has gained 10 spots from this time a year ago, up to 11th.

"Juan Pablo Montoya has fallen the most since this time last year in the points, dropping 10 spots from 11th to 21st. Marcos Ambrose is next, falling nine spots from 18th to 27th. Tony Stewart (first to ninth) and Ryan Newman (seventh to 15th) have each fallen eight spots in the points since this time a year ago."

And an article by SceneDaily.com is the latest evidence of our impression that NASCAR has slipped from its peak of perhaps three years ago. It reports that track owner International Speedway Corporation has seen its admissions revenue drop almost 19 per cent and has lowered its financial expectations for this year.

Three of the Peugeot 908s dropped out with similar engine problems, handing arch-rival Audi a clean sweep of the podium.

The Peugeot factory team's chief engineer Bruno Famin told Autosport the failures had been traced to new conrods used this year -- and a combination of circumstances that led to them being overloaded.

"As far as the engines are concerned, it didn't take us long to confirm that all three engines suffered the same problem, ie: conrod failure, although the cylinders that were affected were different," Famin said.

"Further investigation has just revealed that the particularly severe conditions encountered at Le Mans in June led to excessive overload of the V12s in question. Indeed, the track benefited from high levels of grip this year, so the engines spent longer at full throttle than we expected. At the same time, the weather stayed cool and, unlike previous years, the air/air intercoolers did not become clogged up.

"The filling of the combustion chambers remained extremely efficient throughout, which in turn meant that the performance delivered by the engines was particularly high.

"Okay, the conditions were the same for all competitors, but we were running new conrods this year. That said, they had undergone thorough testing on the bench and during the numerous on-track simulations we carried out upstream of the race.

"Having contested the Le Mans 24 Hours three times, we had every faith in our processes. The evidence now points to the fact that this wasn't the case and that despite our growing experience, it is very difficult to master absolutely everything. The conditions we face at Le Mans differ every year, as do the constraints to which the cars are subjected.

Famin said the suspension problem that halted a fourth 908 earlier in the race was due to a production issue with the chassis.

"We have found a quality-related problem concerning the production of the tub at the point where the lower front-right suspension wishbone is attached to the chassis," he said.

"This is the same tub that won the 2009 Le Mans 24 Hours and the 2010 1000km de Spa-Francorchamps, and -- like every 908 chassis -- is regularly inspected at the factory using sophisticated tools that enable us to detect ageing or damage to the carbon. The problem in this case, however, was due to a totally undetectable defect which resulted in a premature and sudden failure of the mounting point."

Volvo set for WTCC
Volvo is planning to join the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) full-time from the start of next season.

The Swedish manufacturer will field one car in the British and Japanese rounds this season for Swedish and Scandinavian Touring Car Championship leader Robert Dahlgren, and has asked its semi-works team Polestar Racing to evaluate a full campaign for next year.

Volvo has made several WTCC outings in recent years but stopped short of a full commitment to the series. Now its motorsport commercial director, Alexander Murdzevski, has said the time is right with new engine regulations coming into force next year.

"We see WTCC now addressing its major obstacle for growth with the new engine regulations," Murdzevski told Autosport.

"At the same time, we see several national championships starting to stray from the FIA S2000 regulations by several counter-productive decisions and dispensations from a manufacturer perspective.

"We will remain focused on the improved FIA S2000 regulations used in WTCC. That is why we have given Polestar a green light to further evaluate competitiveness, and challenged them to establish a financial and technical plan for WTCC for 2011, including a full FIA homologation of the C30 car."

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